Containers with reduced material content

ABSTRACT

A plastic injection molded container is provided with reduced material content. The plastic container may be a dental floss container but may be any type of container for storing any type of product. The plastic container is comprised of an open framework comprising at least one opening and at least one solid portion and defining an open container body, a flexible sheet overlying said at least one opening, and a bond bonding said flexible sheet exclusively to said at least one solid portion. In an embodiment, the flexible sheet is a label and the bond is an adhesive. The label may be provided with a clear opening for viewing the contents of the container.

RELATED APPLICATION

This is a non-provisional application of provisional application serial No. 61/246,692, filed on Sep. 29, 2009, which is hereby incorporated by reference and the priority benefit of which is hereby claimed.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to packaging, and more particularly, to containers with reduced material content.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A need exists for a package or container such as a plastic container which uses less plastic material. By using less plastic material, a lower cost package will result, less plastic will be processed and less plastic will be disposed of, for example, in garbage dumps and landfills. In this manner, by reducing the amount of plastic in a potentially disposable container, economical and environmental improvements may be achieved.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one embodiment, a plastic injection molded open-walled cage or open plastic framework is formed to provide structural support to a closed-wall package. The cage or framework is then covered or wrapped with a thin sheet or label to cover the openings in the cage or framework. The label can either be clear, opaque or a combination of clear and opaque. For example, a label can be provided with a clear plastic window to allow a user to view within the container to see the level of product remaining inside of the container or package.

The label which covers the opening in the cage or framework is provided with an adhesive in predetermined areas which corresponds only to those areas which will contact the cage or framework. In this manner, no adhesive will be exposed to any product within the cage or framework. Stated another way, only those portions of the label which do not include adhesive will be exposed to the product within the framework. The label can be formed of any conventional sheet material such as paper, plastic, fabric, etc.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete understanding of the present invention, and the attendant advantages and features thereof, will be more readily understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1A illustrates an exemplary prior art container;

FIG. 1B illustrates another exemplary prior art container;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an embodiment of a container with reduced material content;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of another embodiment of a container with reduced material content;

FIG. 4 is a plan view of an embodiment of a label for placement on the container of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a plan view of another embodiment of a label for placement on the container of FIG. 3; and

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an assembled container assembly assembled from the container of FIG. 3 and the label of FIG. 4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

One application in accordance with the present disclosure is the provision of a plastic injection molded container and label assembly for use as a dental floss container. However, the general construction and concept of this disclosure may be applied to virtually any type of package constructed from any type of material for any type of article.

Referring now to FIGS. 1A and 1B, illustrated are exemplary prior art plastic dental floss containers formed entirely of solid wall plastic. In order to reduce the plastic material usage in the constructions of FIGS. 1A and 1B, the open framed container 10 of FIG. 2 has been developed in accordance with the present disclosure.

As seen in FIG. 2, the container 10 is formed with an open-walled cage-like construction which includes, for example, solid side walls 12, a solid bottom wall 14 and a solid hinged top 16. In order to reduce the amount of plastic usage, the front wall of the container 10 has been provided with large openings 18 which are separated by a front vertical plastic reinforcing bar 20.

A top reinforcing bar 22 extends between the side walls 12 and interconnects with the central support or stabilizing bar 20. A similar construction is provided on the back wall of the container 10.

The hinged top 16 can include a lip 17 having a detent 17 a that engages a notch (not shown) on the top reinforcing bar 22. The detent 17 a on the lip 17 secures the hinged top 16 in a closed position to secure the contents of the contents of the container 10 therein.

The container 10 of FIG. 2 reduces the amount of plastic as compared to its counterpart in FIG. 1 by approximately 50%. This results in significant material costs savings as well as reduced recycling of plastic material and reduced material destined for landfill.

A generally rectangular flexible label is bonded to the container 10 to cover all of the openings 18 (other than the top opening which is covered by lid 16). Only selective areas of the label are bonded to the container 10, for example along side walls 12 and/or supports 20, 22.

Another example of the disclosure is shown as the dental floss container 10 in the embodiment of FIG. 3 which has a construction similar to that of FIG. 2. Although in this embodiment, an additional opening 26 is provided in each sidewall 12 to further reduce the material usage. In order to further reduce the material usage, the container 10 is constructed with a generally “U” shaped profile to closely receive a generally circular reel of dental floss.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a one-piece integral label 30 suitable for use in covering the open walled container 10 of FIG. 3. In this example, the periphery or border of the label 30 is provided with a narrow tacky adhesive strip or region 32. The region 32 corresponds to the solid portions of the container 10 or framework of FIG. 3 such that the adhesive only makes contact with the solid regions and is not exposed to any internal area of the container 10. Stated otherwise, any contents within the container 10 are prevented from contact with any of the adhesive due to the limited area of exclusive contact between the adhesive and the plastic container 10.

The openings 18 in the front and back of the container 10 are covered by label portions 36 and the side windows 26 are covered by label portions 38. When the label 30 of FIG. 4 is applied to the framework or container 10 of FIG. 3, the container assembly 50 of FIG. 6 results.

As seen in FIG. 5, instead of using a single integral adhesive panel, a series of individual adhesive panels or labels may be applied in a manner similar to that as described above. In each of the labels of FIGS. 4 and 5, a clear or transparent opening 42 may be provided in one or more portions of the label to allow a user to view the contents within the container 10. This clear window 42 can be provided by making the entire label of clear plastic or a cellophane type material and applying an opaque coating on the rest of the label, other than on the openings or windows 42. Alternatively, an aperture can be formed in the label and covered over with a clear plastic window such as by adhesives, bonding, melting or the like. An entirely clear or opaque label may also be used.

All references cited herein are expressly incorporated by reference in their entirety.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to what has been particularly shown and described herein above. In addition, unless mention was made above to the contrary, it should be noted that all of the accompanying drawings are not to scale. A variety of modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teachings without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention, which is limited only by the following claims. 

1. A container, comprising: an open framework comprising at least one opening and at least one solid portion and defining an open container body; a flexible sheet overlying said at least one opening; and a bond bonding said flexible sheet exclusively to said at least one solid portion.
 2. The container of claim 1, wherein said open framework is comprised of plastic.
 3. The container of claim I, wherein said bond is comprised of adhesive.
 4. The container of claim 1, wherein said flexible sheet is a label.
 5. The container of claim 1, wherein said container is constructed with a U-shaped profile.
 6. The container of claim 1, wherein said container is a dental floss container.
 7. The container of claim 1, wherein said at least one solid portion comprises two side walls defining a front wall of the container, and said at least one opening comprises two openings in the front wall of the container.
 8. The container of claim 7, wherein said two opening are separated by a front reinforcing portion.
 9. The container of claim 8, further comprising a top reinforcing portion extending between the side walls and interconnecting with the front reinforcing portion.
 10. The container of claim 1, further comprising a solid bottom wall.
 11. The container of claim 1, further comprising a solid hinged top wall.
 12. The container of claim 1, wherein said at least one solid portion comprises two side walls and said at least one opening is formed in one or both of the two side walls.
 13. The container of claim 1, wherein said flexible sheet is comprised of a plurality of sheet portions each overlying one opening.
 14. The container of claim 1, further comprising at least one additional clear opening in the flexible sheet defining a viewing window configured to view contents of the container.
 15. A method of constructing a container, comprising: providing an open framework comprising at least one opening and at least one solid portion and defining an open container body; placing a flexible sheet overlying said at least one opening; and bonding said flexible sheet exclusively to said at least one solid portion.
 16. The method of claim 15, further comprising selecting said open framework to be comprised of plastic.
 17. The method of claim 15, further comprising using adhesive to bond said flexible sheet to said at least one solid portion.
 18. The method of claim 15, further comprising selecting a label as said flexible sheet.
 19. The method of claim 15, further comprising selecting the shape of the container to be a U-shaped profile.
 20. The method of claim 15, wherein said container is a dental floss container. 